Wednesday, February 3, 2010

How to Unlock the Data in your CAD Drawings

Are you using AutoCAD to help plan and manage your infrastructure network? Are you wondering how you can access and better use the information in your AutoCAD drawings? Do you want to be able to analyze your AutoCAD drawings, generate material lists and reports, or reveal new patterns in the data? If so, there is a way with AutoCAD Map 3D – the better AutoCAD for working with your infrastructure data.

With AutoCAD Map 3D you can query your AutoCAD drawings in much the same way that a spreadsheet or database can be queried. For example, with AutoCAD Map 3D, you can query by CAD properties such as color and layer, as well as, by location.

Consider a scenario in which a water utility or municipality is reviewing their watermain replacement program. Cast iron watermains are considered a priority. The AutoCAD drawing containing information about the watermain network must be analyzed to determine the location of the cast iron watermains, as well as, their corresponding lengths and diameters.

To see how this type of analysis can be done, please review the following short video which demonstrates the use of CAD queries in AutoCAD Map 3D.

Great to hear! Excellent job on writing the post as well. AutoCAD Map 3D appears to be another one of the many helpful tools in the design process. I work with the McGraw Hill Sweets Network, and we offer a great selection of autocad drawings.

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About this Blog

This blog is a forum for sharing my thoughts and experiences on CAD, GIS and BIM - a forum for my geoExpressions, if you will. It's dedicated to the engineering and geospatial challenges faced by local governments, utilities and other organizations as they design, build and manage their above- and below-ground infrastructure. In addition to my geospatial musings, topics will include business and technical discussions focused on Engineering GIS, CAD/GIS workflows, BIM, and geospatial techniques of interest to design, CAD and geospatial professionals.

Disclaimer:
The materials contained and the opinions expressed on this blog are my own and are not necessarily those of Autodesk.